|
so:text
|
We work in order to be at leisure." Doesn't this statement appear almost immoral to the man or woman of the world of "total work"? Is it not an attack on the basic principles of human society?
Now I have not merely constructed a sentence to prove a point. The statement was actually made — by Aristotle . Yes, Aristotle: the sober, industrious realist, and the fact that he said it, gives the statement special significance. What he says in a more literal translation would be: "We are not-at-leisure in order to be-at-leisure." For the Greeks, "not-leisure" was the word for the world of everyday work; and not only to indicate its "hustle and bustle," but the work itself. The Greek language had only this negative term for it , as did Latin .
The context not only of this sentence but also of another one from Aristotle's Politics shows that these notions were not considered extraordinary, but only self-evident. Could this also imply that people in our day no longer have direct access to the original meaning of leisure? (en) |
